Method for communication in data center, apparatus, and system

A data center, wherein the data center comprises a plurality of servers, a plurality of electrical switches, and at least one optical cross-connect device, and uplink ports of at least two of the plurality of electrical switches are interconnected to the at least one optical cross-connect device, and wherein at least one of the plurality of servers is configured to:

• receive network topology information;
• obtain a data flow;
• and
• configure a routing policy for the data flow based on the network topology information, wherein:
• the configuring a routing policy for the data flow based on the network topology information comprises:
• identifying feature information carried in packets of the data flow;
• and if the feature information of the packets matches preset information, determining that the data flow is a tidal elephant flow;
• or
• identifying a quantity of packets of the data flow in a first time period, or an amount of data comprised in packets in a first time period, or a bandwidth required by packets in a first time period;
• and if the quantity of packets, the amount of data, or the required bandwidth in the first time period is greater than a preset threshold, determining that the data flow is a regular elephant flow;
• and
• the routing policy comprises any one or a combination of the following routing policies:
• a first routing policy, wherein the first routing policy indicates to forward the tidal elephant flow through an optical channel in the at least one optical cross-connect device;
• a second routing policy, wherein the second routing policy indicates to split the regular elephant flow into at least two sub-data flows for forwarding;
• and
• a third routing policy, wherein the third routing policy indicates to forward the data flow through an electrical switch of the plurality of electrical switches in the data center.

A server of a data center, wherein the server comprises:

• at least one processor;
• and
• one or more memories coupled to the at least one processor and storing programming instructions for execution by the at least one processor to perform operations comprising:
• receiving network topology information delivered by a topology manager;
• obtaining a data flow;
• and
• configuring a routing policy for the data flow based on the network topology information, wherein;
• the configuring a routing policy for the data flow based on the network topology information comprises:
• identifying feature information carried in packets of the data flow;
• and if the feature information of the packets matches preset information, determining that the data flow is a tidal elephant flow;
• or
• identifying a quantity of packets of the data flow in a first time period, or an amount of data comprised in packets in a first time period, or a bandwidth required by packets in a first time period;
• and if the quantity of packets, the amount of data, or the required bandwidth in the first time period is greater than a preset threshold, determining that the data flow is a regular elephant flow;
• and
• the routing policy comprises any one or a combination of the following routing policies:
• a first routing policy, wherein the first routing policy indicates to forward the tidal elephant flow through an optical channel in at least one optical cross-connect device in the data center;
• a second routing policy, wherein the second routing policy indicates to split the regular elephant flow into at least two sub-data flows for forwarding;
• and
• a third routing policy, wherein the third routing policy indicates to forward the data flow through an electrical switch of a plurality of electrical switches in the data center, wherein uplink ports of the electrical switches is interconnected to the at least one optical cross-connect device.

A network interface card, wherein the network interface card comprises:

• at least one processor;
• and
• one or more memories coupled to the at least one processor and storing programming instructions for execution by the at least one processor to perform operations comprising:
• receiving network topology information delivered by a topology manager;
• obtaining a data flow;
• and
• configuring a routing policy for the data flow based on the network topology information, wherein:
• the configuring a routing policy for the data flow based on the network topology information comprises:
• identifying feature information carried in packets of the data flow;
• and if the feature information of the packets matches preset information, determining that the data flow is a tidal elephant flow;
• or
• identifying a quantity of packets of the data flow in a first time period, or an amount of data comprised in packets in a first time period, or a bandwidth required by packets in a first time period;
• and if the quantity of packets, the amount of data, or the required bandwidth in the first time period is greater than a preset threshold, determining that the data flow is a regular elephant flow;
• and
• the routing policy comprises any one or a combination of the following routing policies:
• a first routing policy, wherein the first routing policy indicates to forward the tidal elephant flow through an optical channel in at least one optical cross-connect device in a data center;
• a second routing policy, wherein the second routing policy indicates to split the data flow into at least two sub-data flows for forwarding;
• and
• a third routing policy, wherein the third routing policy indicates to forward the regular elephant flow through an electrical switch of a plurality of electrical switches in the data center, wherein uplink ports of the electrical switches is interconnected to the at least one optical cross-connect device.